(Subscription required) Sacramento Judge Richard C. Miadich, a former political law partner and FPPC chair, is applying lessons from decades of campaign battles to a fast-paced law and motion assignment amid a new "civil home courts" experiment.

(Subscription required) Hearings and matters scheduled for Wednesday, February 4, in Superior Court departments at the Spring Street Courthouse may be continued, conducted remotely, or moved to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse.

The defendants, who were all 19 years old at the time, were initially charged with felony assault. As part of a plea agreement for a reduced sentence, they agreed to participate in a gun violence prevention program and engage in LGBTQ+ community education. This restorative justice approach focused on accountability, healing and connection, rather than punishment alone.

Proposition 50, the ballot measure approved by California voters to increase Democrats’ U.S. House majority in the state and counter similar actions by Republicans in Texas and other states, survived its last legal challenge Wednesday when the Supreme Court rejected an effort to block its implementation by the California Republican Party and the Trump administration, leaving the new maps in effect for this year’s congressional elections.